WHY MURDERERS EXIST.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 February 1918, Page 6

WHY MURDERERS EXIST.

NINETY PER CENT. WERE CHILD SLAVES. From out of one of the American State prisons a wholly new light,' bright with the clarity of science, has been suddenly I east on the gloomy subject of murder! ! The two are linked more closely together than the woHd ever dreamed of before. This scientific illumination shows up the murderer not' as an evil, black-souled '''brute. Penetrating into his past, it reveals the picture of a little innocent child, caught in the grinding wheels of industry. And it casts the shadow of responsibility for 'his crime upon the community. "Over 90 per 'cent, of the many murders I have investigated were committed .by child slaves! They were forced to enter the soul-stunting environment of shop or factory before thev were fifteen years old! THE WORST OF CRIMES. The startling wqrds are those of Dr. Rock Sleyster, lamous as scientist and criminologist, whose brilliant statistical work as*superintendent of the State Ho pital for Criminal Insane is throwing the new light upon the subject of .homicide. "The murderer's is the worst of crimes. Bijt whose is the'first— his, or the community? Did not society commit another form of murder, not in killing these men outright, but in so stunting 'them as children and draining their life force that they never afterward could attain to their full and normal life! True, the murderer is not a normal man. ' That is just why all efforts to reform ( him or prevent his act have failed in the 1 paat. Society revenges itself upon the | murderer by punishments devised for a general, normal type. It has totally disregarded the individual murderer as he really is, and the physical conditions which are responsible f™ '.is pervert psychology. ' . T *' "But the new scientific treatment of the murderer must depend upon just the study of these physical conditions—his environment and heredity, his health and mental development. And until ttie State ' adopts this science, does as much to prevent crime as to weak vengeance and | provides for research into the causes of •. crime as well as for police to arrest the criminal alter his crime has been committed, there will be ffi> great step taken to eliminate homicide!

"The figures which I have compiled—they are the result of daily association with 269 murderers—tell somewhat of the criminal as (he really Is and the causes that have made him so. Tiiey show that ovct per cent, of murderers had been sent to work before the age of eighteen, and over 55 per cent, were at work before the age of 1-2, and 90.0 per cent, were at work at fifteen. Right there, in the evil of child labor, lie some of the roots that fed the repulsive growth of murder.

PREVENTION, NOT PUNISHMENT. . "Full half the men were under the influence of alcohol when they committed their crime. So alcoholism stands alongsidetchild labor as a deadly source of criminality. How much is alcoholism due to child labor, I don't know. Over half of the murderers were physically or mentally degenerate. The percentage of degeneracy among their parents was noticeably 'higher than among the parents of any other classes of criminals. Over 43 per cent, were without the beneficent influence <)f one or both parents from an early age, while another 17 per cent, had trouble in the home.

"Over 50 per cent, never got beyond the fourth standard in school. In other words, half the murderers were not provided with even the elementary education which jg necessary to a normal development of tlhe righteous citizen, More than 43 per cent, had been in gaol at least once before they committed their crime. Had only pj-oper preventive measures been taken with them at that time, many human lives might have been saved! "All these figure? taken together tell their own story. They show that in dozen different ways the murderer is the victim of material conditions which could be remedied or prevented! The immedithiiig for Society to do, then, is to destroy these evil conditions. That step alone would do away with a great percentage of murder. I am sure that by putting a stop to child labor we would cut our prison population in half."